Wines and wine making have been existent since 8000 years ago. Since prehistoric times, man have been enjoying this intoxicating beverage which appears in various forms and types.

Wines are commonly made of grapes. But according to Jack Keller, a veteran wine maker, wines could be made out of any non-toxic plant or plant part (ex. Strawberry Wine, Banana Wine, Dandelion Wine etc.). The only reason why grapes are usually the base ingredients for wines is because it contains the correct mix of natural ingredients and nutrients needed and good for fermentation and preservation plus it does not contain pectin.. Wines with base fruits other than grapes will usually need additional ingredients and enzymes to produce good tasting wine.

Making homemade wines have been practiced for quite some time now. It’s popular in the US, the UK, Canada and other parts of the world. That’s because wines are relatively easy to make. The process itself is easy to master but it is a meticulous and laborious task. It is a fair price to pay though, if it means you’ll produce your own good tasting homemade wine.

This site’s objective is to provide helpful information for hobbyists and beginners in homemade wine making. If by chance you come across an error in our information, we would appreciate it if you let us know about it so we could correct the information. Thank you.

The basic steps in wine making are:

1) Choosing the right grapes to use for the wine - to have good tasting wine, the grapes that you should use must be of high quality.

There are certain species of grapes that are grown specifically for wine making like Chardonnay, Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, etc. (If these are not available, you could use other varieties or grapes but the taste will not be the same.)
The grapes you will use must have the right sugar content, you can check this by using a hydrometer.
Discard rotten or spoiled grapes, these will affect the quality of the wine.
Remove the stems as well since this will also affect the taste of the wine.
Make sure that the grapes are free of insects, debris and dirt.

2) Clean the grapes to be used for making the wine - wash the grapes of bird droppings, dust, debris, dirt and pesticides.

3) Extracting the flavors - according to Jack Keller, there are four basic ways of extracting the flavor from grapes all of which start with chopping, slicing or cushing of the grapes, then placed on the primary fermentation vessel.

Cold Marceration - this method of extracting the flavor will require the refrigeration of the fermenting juice after ingredients like sugar , sulfites and pectic enzymes are are added in the mixture.

Hot Water Extraction - this method will require the use of boiling water after adding sugar to the crushed, sliced ot chopped fruit. After adding water, the mixture is stirred to dissolve the sugar.

Direct Heat Extraction - this method requires putting the crushed, sliced or chopped grapes in a cooking pot first instead of the primary fermentation vessel. The pot with the fruits is heated and to avoid scorching of the grapes, water is added. The liquid mixture is stirred to distribute the heat evenly. After a set amount of time, the liquid is then transferred to the primary fermentation vessel until it cools to room temperature.

Fermentation Extraction - all the ingredients are added to the fruit in the primary. This includes sugar, sulfites, the enzymes, etc. The flavor of the grapes is extracted through fermentation.

4) Adding the Ingredients - What you have now in your primary is the must. It is the juice of the grapes that will be fermented and turned into wine. But before fermentation, ingredients like sugar, tannin, pectic enzymes, sulfites and yeast are added. It is during this stage that acid levels are adjusted; so is the the mixture’s sweetness or sugar level.

5) Primary Fermentation - The yeast added to the must requires exposure to oxygen for 48 to 72 hours. This means that during the primary fermentation, the must is done or performed without an airlock.

6) Secondary Fermentation - In this step, the wine is separated from the solids of the must. The liquid part is transfered to a secondary fermentation vessel, normally a carboy. Remember that when transferring to the secondary, the wine should have minial contact with oxygen. Upon transferring to the carboy, the vessel is airlocked. The anaerobic fermentation begins here.

7) Racking - After the secondary fermentation, the wine is then racked. This means that the wine is transferred to another secondary vessel to separate the sine from the lees or solid deposits at the bottom of the secondary. This process is done after at least three weeks. Racking is a repetitive process. As long as there are deposits or solid pearticles forming at the bottom of the secondary, the wine should be racked.

The solid particle forming at the bottom of the secondary are lees. They are dying or dead yeasts. If left for more than 60 days, the wine’s flavor and aroma may be affected.

8 ) Bottling - It is now time to bottle the wines. But make sure that before you bottle the wine, fermentation is already over, there are no more solid deposits at the bottom and the wine is already clear. After bottling, leave the bottles standing upto three days, then after three days, store the bottles lying or on its side at a specified room temperature for six months to one year for aging.

Listed above are the basic steps in wine making. These could be applied or used to any fruit you wish to ferment into wine. Remember that just because these are the basic steps in making homemade wine, it doesn’t mean that you will to follow the directions word per word. The methods and the process may be the same to all fruits but there will be variable changes due to varying characteristics of every fruits.

And always remember to watch and observe the specific gravity of the wine you are making as much as possible to avoid mistakes.

With that in mind go ahead and start making your homemade wines.

Most of the items in the wine making kit that you will need for your homemade wine could be found in your home. You don’t necessarily need to buy them if you could find an alternative or a substitute item in your house, just make sure that the tools and equipment you are using are sterilized to avoid spoilage due to contaminants and bacteria.

Here are the Basic Equipments you will need in your Wine Making Kits:

• 6 or 7 gallon plastic bucket to be used as your primary

• 5 gallon Carboy to be used as a secondary (could be replaced by a smaller Carboy depending on the amount of wine to be made; or as many 1 gallon glass bottles you can find)

• Air locks or bubblers with bored bungs

• Nylon Straining bag or a sieve or a mesh bag

• Hydrometer

• Siphon Hose could be used for racking

• Corks

• Bottles where the wine will be stored after fermentation

• Corker if needed

A reminder about replacing these items with a substitute or alternative item is that you should avoid using equipments (primary or secondary vessel) made of metals or any container that has any indication of being scratched inside.

Metals have layers of chemicals on its surface. During fermentation which could range between 24 hrs to one (1) year, the wine could draw these chemicals out and mix with the concoction. These chemicals may cause not only the compromise of your wine’s taste and quality but it could as well, cause you to have serious health issues.

Scratched containers on the other hand are just as risky. All the equipments and tools to be used for wine making should be sterilized and free of bacteria or any kind of contaminant. No matter how minuscule the scratch is, it should not be used since that tiny scratch could breed millions of living microorganisms. These microscopic beings could cause your wine to spoil.

These living microorganisms can’t be cleaned either no matter what you do. So to avoid having your wine risked into spoilage, better not use scratched containers at all.

Of course, the listed items above aren’t the only things you will need in your kit to make wine. You will need some additional consumable items or additional ingredients to ensure that the wine you are making will complete its fermentation, have the proper acidic and alcoholic level and others. These consumable items aren’t usual household products and you will definitely need to find a store near you to purchase any of these items.

The Consumable Items that you will need to include in your Wine Making Kit are:

• Campden Tablets (Sulfites)

• Citric Acid or Acid Blend

• Tannin

• Pectic Enzyme

• Potassium Sorbate or Yeast Zapper to be used for stabilizing the wine

• Yeast Nutrient

• Wine Yeast

• Sugar

• Wine Finings to be used if speedy clearing of the wine is required or desired

Now that you have all these items and list of chemicals to be included in your starter wine making kit, you are set to go and start producing your own homemade wine. But of course, there is one vital ingredient that you must have or obtain before you start making your wine. You should of course, identify which base fruit you are going to use and where you could get it.

There are wine kits available that merchandises both the equipments, the chemicals and the concentrated fruit juice, all packaged as one. You could buy these types of wine kits if you like and then, just reuse the tools for your next batch of wines.

Another option is if you could gather all these equipment at a cheaper price somewhere else, then do so and just buy the concentrated fruit juice. Of, course, there is also the option of extracting your own fruit juice so that you could pick the fruits yourself and be certain that you are using fully ripe fruits.

We have listed below some samples of the Wine Kits that you could buy in the market today. We have included some description and what other items are included in the wine kit as well. Hopefully, these could give you an idea of what kind or type of wine you’d want to make.

Sample Wine Kits:

• White Selection: Gewurtztraminer Wine Kit – Comes with 15 liters of concentrated varietal juice, wine yeast and all necessary ingredients. Can produce 6 gallons of wine and ready to be bottled in as early as six weeks.

• California Connoseur: Cabernet Sauvignon – Comes with 7 liters of Cabernet Sauvignon grapes, which is equivalent to 6 gallons or 30 bottles of wine. It also comes with all the ingredients needed to make the wine. All ingredients have been pre-measured for easy preparation. Also comes with directions.

• World Vineyard: Chilean Malbec – Comes with 10 liters of concentrated Chilean Malbec juice, which would produce 6 gallons or 30 bottles of wine. The wine could be bottled in at least four weeks.

• European Select: Valpolicella - Comes with 7.5 liters of concentrated Valpolicella grape juice. Can ferment up to 6 gallons of good quality wine. All ingredients are included and have been pre-measured along with easy to follow directions.

• Island Mist: Green Apple Riesling – Comes with 7.5 liters of concentrated green apple juice mixed with concentrated Riesling grape juice. You can produce up to 6 gallons or 30 bottles of fruit flavored wine. All ingredients are included. Can be bottled in 4 weeks.

• Niagara Mist: Peach Chardonnay – This wine kit comes with 7.5 liters of concentrated peach and Chardonnay grape juice. You can produce up to 6 gallons or 30 bottles of peach flavored Chardonnay wine which can be bottled in as early as 28 days. All ingredients included have been measured prior to packing.

These wine kits sound so savory as you read through them. Especially if you are a regular wine drinker and you see the amount of wine these kits could produce. But you have to be aware as well of the prices. The cheapest wine kit that we have seen will cost around US $50 and the most expensive that we have seen so far is around US $160.

The kit may be expensive but once you have your thirty bottles of wine, it may be worth it.

It is not our intention to sell or market any of the brands or products that were mentioned above. In fact, we don’t have any of the wine kits that we listed. The reason why we posted them is to illustrate the variety of wine kits that are available in the market.

It ranges from varietal grape concentrates to exotic fruits to the combination of varietal grape juice and other fruits. You can see how creative wine makers have become by not only producing wine of a certain fruit or made of grapes but have considered producing even blended flavors.

Now you, as a hobbyist or as a beginner in the field of wine making, may find it unfathomable to produce wines like these but the list was made to show you that it is possible to produce these blended flavored wines. Even at the comfort of your own home as long as you have the wine making equipments and tools with the necessary additives.

This Watermelon Wine Recipe, if done right, will hopefully produce a Gallon of good quality watermelon wine.

Ingredients:

2 qts Watermelon juice
1 1/2 lbs sugar
2 1/2 tsp acid blend
1/8 tsp tannin
1 tsp nutrient
1 Campden Tablet
1 pack yeast
2 qts water

Steps:

1) Extract the juice from the watermelon. You can do this by chopping the watermelon, putting it in a nylon strain bag and squeezing the juice out of the fruit into the primary (remember to take out the seed before extracting the juice).
2) Add all the ingredients except the yeast; stir to dissolve and then cover with clean, sterile cloth.
3) Refrigerate for 24 hours
4) After 24 hours, add the yeast. When fermentation starts, stir the mixture.
5) If indicated by the hydrometer, add more sugar. Stir to dissolve, then set aside for three days to a week (until specific gravity measures at 1.040)
6) Press the juice from the nylon bag; take the bag out of the primary and discard
7) Rack the watermelon juice to the secondary and over with airlock
When specific gravity drops to 1.000, repeat racking process (more or less, after three weeks) to discard lees (air lock whenever racked)
9) Repeat Racking until no more lees and the wine is clear
10) Bottle and age from six months to one year

A few warnings and reminders that you should remember when fermenting your own homemade watermelon wine:

• Watermelon’s rate of spoilage is fast. To avoid this, it is suggested that the juice is refrigerated during the first 24 hours after the ingredients are added.
• The amount of sugar that you will add to the wine depends on what the hydrometer indicates. The required sugar to be added may be more or less than the amount indicated in the ingredients list.
• To produce a good quality homemade watermelon wine, the watermelon to be used must be ripe, sweet and of good quality.
• Follow recommended specifig gravities to ensure that the watermelon wine you are making will turn out to be a good quality watermelon wine

Aside from causing merriment though intoxication, Ciders or Apple Wines have or provides health benefits as well. Apples by the fruit itself contains phenolics and antioxidants but when converted or fermented into apple wines, the substance or beverage may contain a higher concentration of phenolics and antioxidants. These phenolics and antioxidants are good for the body since antioxidants are well known to eliminate free radicals in the body. By doing so, the body becomes healthier. (Free Radicals are the usual causes of Cancer, Heart Disease and other illnesses)

Below, is a recipe for a homemade apple wine which is easy and simple to do. But, just like all other wines, Apple Wines will be laborious to produce but it will be much worth it:

Ingredients:

3 1/2 lbs Apples
2 1/2 lbs sugar
8 pts water
2 Lemons
1 Orange
1 tsp Yeast
Yeast Nutrients
Pectic Enzyme

Steps:

1) Wash , clean and remove stems of apples
2) Chop and dice (do not remove skin; core is optional) put in a nylon straining bag and squeeze juice out
3) Put in a primary and add water; cover primary with sterile cloth
4) Stir the mixture with a plastic spoon for seven days; always cover with a sterile cloth every after stirring
5) Take out straining bag with pulp; strain pulp until dry
6) Transfer the Must to a secondary fermentation vessel (strain the juice using the sterile cloth)
7) Add sugar, and washed lemon and orange juice and rinds; Stir until sugar is dissolved
Add yeast, nutrients and pectic enzymes; attach air lock
9) Set aside for four months
10) Rack to another secondary vessel and attach air lock
11) Repeat Racking process until apple wine becomes clear
12) When wine is clear, bottle the apple wine and let it age for six months to one year

Reminders:

• All tools and equipment to be used for making the apple wine should be sterilized to avoid spoilage of the wine
• For best results, the yeast to be used for wine fermentation is “Wine Yeast”, this will produce a higher alcohol content as compared to using baker’s yeast
• Pick out the best apples to produce high quality apple wine; a fully ripe apple will have a higher probability of producing good tasting wine as compared to an overripe or under ripe apples

Ingredients:

4 lbs pear
6 pts water
4 cups sugar
2 1/2 tsp Acid Blend
1 tsp Yeast Nutrient
1 crushed Campden Tablet
1 pkg Wine yeast

Process:

1) Remove the stems, chop and remove the seeds and core. Washing the pear is optional because pears have natural wild yeast which could be used in the fermentation process.
2) Put the chopped pear in the nylon straining bag, mesh or crush the pear then extract juice into the primary
3) Put the straining bag in the primary
4) Pour either normal water or hot water; if hot/boiling water is used, wait until it has cooled down to add other ingredients
5) Add all ingredients and stir until ingredients dissolve ( do NOT add yeast yet)
6) Cover the primary with cloth and set aside for 24 hours
7) Add yeast after 24 hours and cover primary again with cloth
Stir the concoction daily; keep extracting the juice from the pulp by squeezing
9) Ferment the the wine until specific gravity reaches 1.040
10) Rack the wine to a sterile secondary for an anaerobic fermentation (attach air lock)
11) When specific gravity goes down to 1.000, rack again to another secondary vessel and attach air lock
13) Repeat Racking process every two (2) months until no more lees or sediments appear at the bottom of the vessel
14) Bottle and age for 3 months

Reminders:

• Making Pear wine starts with the picking of the fruits. Make sure that the pear you are using for your wine is fully ripe. Avoid using over ripe fruits because it will affect the taste of the wine.
• There are various species of pears that could be used as base ingredients for the pear wine you are planning to make. Make sure that you observe the sugar levels, the acid levels and the specific gravity of the pear you are using for a higher probability of making high quality wine
• Pears naturally have wild yeast. You can make use of it when during fermentation by not washing the pear. Using wild yeast is optional though

Clean your equipment and tools carefully. Unsanitized equipment will allow your wine to be vulnerable to bacteria and unwanted lactic acids that might cause your wine to spoil

Before you start making your strawberry wine, make sure that all your equipments are sterilized to avoid spoilage. To get the best results, do not use over ripe strawberries, just the freshest and sweetest you could find.

The list of ingredients are as follow:

• 4 lb strawberries
• 1 gal water
• 2 lb sugar
• 1 tbsp acid blend
• ½ tsp tannin
• ½ tsp peptic enzyme
• 1 Campden tablet
• wine yeast
• 1 tbsp yeast nutrients

Steps:

1. Prepare the strawberries. Remove the stems and leaves and then wash the strawberries.
2. Put the strawberries in a nylon straining bag. Crush and mash the strawberries.
3. Put the straining bag in a sterilized bucket with the strawberry juice.
4. Add all ingredients except yeast and yeast nutrients. Stir well.
5. Add crushed Campden tablet and stir.
6. Cover the primary for 24 hours with a sterile cloth.
7. Add wine yeast and yeast nutrients.
8. Monitor the specific gravity until ready.
9. Rack until clear.
10. Bottle and Age

There are many variations to this recipe like adding sugar during racking to produce sweeter tasting wine and adding lime for additional flavor. I think that those are a bit complicated already and may lead to disaster more than this recipe.For starters, we suggest that you start with the simple wine making recipes first like this basic strawberry wine recipe here.

Go ahead and try it. We hope that you enjoy the end product or your very first homemade strawberry wine.

These are the necessary ingredients you will need in making your own mango wine:

• 3-4 lbs of freshly peeled mangoes

• 2 ½ lbs of sugar

• 7 ¼ pts of water

• 1 ½ tsp acid blend

• 2 Campden tablets

• ½ tsp pectic enzyme

• 1 tsp yeast nutrients

• ¼ tsp tannin

• 1 tsp Wine Yeast

Process:

1. Boil the water.

2. While boiling the water, prepare the mangoes by peeling , slicing and dicing it. Liquefy the fruit using a blender. If there is no blender available, you can put the mangoes inside a straining bag, place it inside the fermenting bucket, then mash the mangoes using a potato masher.

3. When the water boils, add the sugar to the water. Stir the hot water to make it absorb more sugar. Once all the sugar has been dissolved the liquid substance will become syrupy.

4. Let it cool a bit, then pour the liquid on the mashed mango inside the fermentor.

5. Add the tannin, acid blend, Campden tablets and the yeast nutrients together with the mixture in the fermentor.

6. Cover the fermentor and leave it at room temperature for 24 hours. Then add the pectic enzyme. Leave it again for 12 hours.

7. Add the wine yeast. Let yeast do its work for 10 days.

8. Squeeze the straining bag 2-3 times a day for ten days. On the tenth day, squeeze the straining bag till dry, then discard the bag and the pulp. Let everything settle overnight.

9. Siphon the concoction to the secondary fermentor. Minimize the transfer of lees from the primary to the secondary.

10. Air lock the secondary and leave it for 30 days.

11. Rack the wine every two months for six months or until wine has no more lees.

12. Bottle and Age.

A few reminders with the process of making the homemade mango wine:

• Always keep your equipment sanitized. To avoid spoilage of the wine, keep everything clean.

• Use only freshly picked fruits and use only mangoes with the right ripeness. Avoid using over ripe mangoes since they tend to change the taste of the mango wine you are producing.